III
by Antiform
Summary: A message in a bottle finds its way to Destiny Islands. It is from the king, asking for help for a few young heroes. Someone is messing with time and bringing back the dead. Likely won't be updated. Written right after KH2 came out. May update if inspired


**Chapter One: Destiny Islands**

Kairi is the one to find it: a bottle with a letter inside, wearing the seal of King Mickey. It is the type used to send messages through the seas, but it hadn't been in the water at all. In fact, the bottle is far from the sea when she finds it rolling somehow towards Riku's house. At least, that's what it seems to be doing because his house is the last one on the top of the hill it is rolling _up_.

She picks it up, inspecting it before asking it, "What are you doing here? Riku's with Sora on the island, silly!" She laughs at it before rushing down the hill. Sure, Riku's mom is waiting for her to pick up the cookies she made for them, but this is more important than cookies. Okay, she admits to herself, cookies are way tastier, but this is _important_. And Riku's mom would understand the urgency of the situation if she knew about the whole keyblade and heartless thing. All _she_ knows is that her son disappeared for over a year without so much as a letter back home. Kairi suspects that the little things that kept happening to Riku—like the split in his pants at school that one time—is the woman's payback.

By the time she arrives at her oat, she's out of breath. Rowing to the small island doesn't help, either. When she was a kid with endless energy, she'd had no problem, but now she's a _lady_, the mayor tells her all the time. Ladies don't act like kids or play rough with boys! Well, the secretary tells her that the mayor is wrong; ladies _do_ play rough with boys, but she also cautions not to do that yet.

When she arrives on the island, she shakes her head to clear her thoughts. There's no use in thinking about things like that. They always lead to Sora, and she certainly isn't ready to think about that yet. She runs again to get to her friends. She knows where they are, where they always are when they wait on her or talk.

The boys are standing by the usual tree, talking, when she gets there. She doesn't know what they are talking about because they stop and look towards her when she calls out to them. "Sora! Riku!"

Sora is the first to speak as she reaches them. "What's wrong?"

She holds the bottle out after catching her breath.

Sora snatches it out of her hand. "It's from the king!" It is so like him to be rude without meaning anything by it, so Kairi doesn't get mad at him. Besides, it's such a stupid reason, anyway.

Okay, so it annoyed her a bit, but it's really hard to stay mad with Sora, especially when something like this happens.

Sora hurridly opens the bottle, pulls out the letter from inside, and rolls it out. With Kairi on one side of him and Riku on the other, he reads it:

"_Riku,_

_Hate to bother ya so soon after everything, but somethin's going on. Dead people have been showin' up like they never left. Thing is, no one from their worlds remembers 'em dyin'._

_Someone's gotta be messin' with time somehow, and I hope to have your help with this. Sora and Kairi, too._

_You can send your reply in this bottle. It knows the way._

_-Mickey"_

Once finished reading, Sora turns his attention to Riku, who is in the process of re-reading it. "How come he sent it to just you? Hmm?" His right eyebrow rises as he waits for an answer.

Riku shrugs in response, his face silently asking the brunette if he _really_ needs to ask the question. The elder friend has gotten to be friends with the great king since the year before, so it would make sense for Mickey to choose to write to him. "What do you make of this?" he asks the other two.

"We _just_ got home," complains Sora, looking absolutely pitiful. "But if they need our help, we can't just ignore it." Classic hero-speak.

"Then we go. Together," says Kairi, forming it almost like a question rather than a statement. Throughout the adventures, she's been left out… Unconscious, being protected, stuck waiting. It is refreshing for someone to ask for _her_ help for once.

* * *

If I owned it, this would be how the next game starts. And we'd be visiting worlds other than Disney-inspired ones.


End file.
